June 24-30, 2024

Weather | 6/24, p. cloudy, 66°, 95° | 6/25, p. cloudy to thunder, 80°, 93° | 6/26, cloudy to sunny, 1.23" rain overnight, 65°, 83° | 6/27, sunny, 62°, 82° | 6/28, 0.02" rain, cloudy, 71°, 75° | 6/29, 0.03" rain overnight, p. cloudy, 75°, 82° | 6/30, sunny 59°, 77° |

• Monday, 6/24: Second Racking of Cherry Wine
  
  • Katie texted a photo of a black bear she saw when she went to work this morning (see photo, below).
    
  • I racked all of the cherry wine for the second time, due to large collections of fines at the bottom of containers. Each batch fit into a 5-gallon carboy and a 1-gallon jug. By nighttime, the wine turned a dark red color (see photo, below). The specific gravity of batch 1 was 0.993, giving it an alcohol content of 11 percent. Batch 2 had a specific gravity of 0.994 for an alcohol content of 10.2 percent. Both batches received 1.1 grams of Kmeta. I had to add eight ounces of distilled water, split between the two containers of batch 2, to bring the levels of liquid to the top.
    
  • Mary picked about a couple handfuls of blackberries. She spooked up a deer in the west field. It was really hot, so she took a break midway through trudging around the property. There are a lot of unripe berries. High heat means they must be checked daily.
    
  • I watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. Florida won, 2-1, and earned the 2024 championship. They were the better team in the final game. I was rooting for Edmonton...maybe next year.
  • While we sat in the living room, prior to bedtime, we heard chimney swift chicks peeping from our chimney.
    

A black bear visiting apartments in Anchorage.

Dark red color of cherry wine after 2nd racking.

• Tuesday, 6/25: Picking Blackberries in the Heat
  
  • Mary and I picked blackberries on what turned out to be a very hot day. Our clothes were soaked with sweat after each of our two forays seeking wild fruit. We filled the first quart of 2024 blackberries in the freezer. The first picking venture started at Bramble Hill, where blackberry plants are drastically diminished, to a march across the north end of the north field, where several new blackberry patches are emerging. We startled a deer at the northwest corner of the north field. It was laying in the shade under a small oak tree. The second venture starts in the west field, proceeds around Frog Pond, down the west side of the south field, then southeast of the house to several blackberry patches in that area. Blackberry picking in the heat wipes you out, so long breaks in the air conditioning are necessary.
    
  • I found huge turkey feather in the southwest corner of the north field (see photo, below). I'm guessing it came from a really big tom turkey.
    
  • Mary made pizza for our main meal. We marvel at the high cost of pizzas advertised from chain pizza joints in flyers we get. We create pizzas for a fraction of that cost, and they're better, made with a whole wheat crust. My blood glucose reading reflects the better food. My nighttime reading was 121, which is good for me after a meal.
    
  • I made three online orders today. One was for 25 pounds of textured vegetable protein (TVP), made from soybeans, and 50 pounds of regular rolled oats. Both are much cheaper purchased this way, compared to buying them in a grocery store, even with shipping. I ordered the outer container of a good rain gauge made by an occupational development center in Fergus Falls, MN, that gives physical and mental handicap folks a place of employment. We first got this first-rate rain gauge from the Glasgow, Montana U.S. Weather Service when I did a story on them while working for Mid-Rivers Telecom in Circle, MT. This will be only the third replacement since getting the first one over 15 years ago. I also ordered four chicken waterer tops from an animal and vet store in Alabama. Little Giant plastic waterer tops go bad after a couple years in the summer heat and winter freezes. The bottoms last longer. So, it's nice that I found a source for just the tops.
    
  • We noticed lots of thunder in the afternoon and storms developed around us or even overhead of us. We received nothing but a couple drops of rain. After dark was different. An evening storm developed west of us and headed our way, giving us over an inch of much-needed rain.

  

  An 18-inch turkey feather, the largest we've ever found.

• Wednesday, 6/26: Cleaning Out the Suburban
  • Katie texted that she saw the black bear again, after hearing one of her dogs and cats growling.
  • Mary picked blackberries from all around our property and filled a half quart for the freezer.
    
  • She saw two deer. The first was a fawn that was lying down in the tall grass along trail to Cherry Deer Blind in the north part of our property. The second deer was in the west field.
  • We saw a third deer tonight. It was a small doe near the apple trees south of the house. You could tell she's been nursing a fawn. She walked off into the west woods.
    
  • I emptied the '84 GMC Suburban. We've been using it as a storage place since 2014. I pulled 25 Styrofoam coolers out of the vehicle that I saved while working at Petco. Tropical fish were shipped in them. I kept them with the idea of insulating the chicken coop, which I still want to do. There were a lot of other items in there, like mouse traps, blankets for covering garden plants, a tire iron, old weed trimmer parts, two 80-pound bags of Quikrete concrete mix, and lots of mice pooh. 
  • Here's Mary's eulogy to the old Suburban: "Dick emptied the old 1984 GMC Suburban today, in preparation to handing it over to the junk guy this weekend. The Suburban has a lot of family history tied up in it. We bought it in 1993, the year Bill was born, in Roseau (MN). We've been through northern Minnesota blizzards with it, as well as trips to Winnipeg, the Northwest Angle of Lake of the Woods, Saskatchewan, and the Montana Rockies. For a few years, we drove the Suburban around Roseau at Christmas as official Christmas decoration judges. This vehicle moved us from Roseau to Circle (MT), to Richey (MT) and back to Circle, and finally to here. I drove the kids to Glendive (MT) a few times a week for baseball and softball games. On one of these trips, I drove it into a microburst on the edge of Glendive and felt the tire leave the road slightly, making me glad I was not driving a car. Wherever we traveled, we had Molly and Klondike, our golden retrievers, and Doc, the Basset, roaming in the back, because traveling anywhere meant a long trip and they were happier with us than left at home for hours on end. We haven't used the Suburban for anything but storage for years. It is old and worn out, and the time has come to let go. But, the memories surrounding that old vehicle will live on."
  • I also emptied three Styrofoam coolers and lots of flat Styrofoam pieces out of the pickup box that were once in the Buick. We need the pickup for shopping, tomorrow.
    
  • We didn't hear any cicadas, today. Yahoo!
    

• Thursday, 6/27: Shopping
  
  • We went shopping in Quincy. The buy of the day was a bag full of material that Mary picked up at Goodwill. There are many pieces she plans to use for cross stitch ornament backing. The price was $11.87 and Mary thinks it was worth $75-$100, considering the quality of the material.
    
  • We watched the Biden Trump debate and turned it off once all of the talking heads started telling us what we already saw.
    
  • The junk guy texted that he might not be showing up this weekend. He's having difficulty locating a tow bar to use in towing the Suburban to his place.
    

• Friday, 6/28: Blackberry Picking & Wheelbarrow Tires
  
  • Bill called. His last day at work was Wednesday, instead of today. They kicked him out early. He received a substantial amount of severance pay. Bill is working on self-education related to computer programs. He will visit us July 3-7.
    
  • I decided to get an eye exam. Coatings are flaking off of both pairs of glasses for Mary and I. If my exam goes well, Mary will follow when funds are sufficient. I also have hazy vision in my left eye. I suspect a cataract.
    
  • Mary picked more blackberries. We now have  2.5 quarts of this year's blackberries in the freezer. I picked a handful of blackberries that are surrounded by poison ivy west of the house. Mary avoids heavy poison ivy places. It doesn't bother me as much as it does for Mary.
    
  • I replaced wheelbarrow tires on two of our three wheelbarrows. We now have flat-free tires on all of our wheelbarrows. I had to cut and fit spacers to fit the wheels on the axles of both wheelbarrows out of plastic electric conduit.
    
  • While ending evening chores, I heard and then saw five chimney swifts flying over the house. It must mean some of their babies are out flying about.  They usually leave a week, or so, after the young ones start flying. At the same time I spotted the chimney swifts, I saw about a dozen nighthawks gliding overhead at a higher altitude. They looked like they were just playing in the air currents.
    

• Saturday, 6/29: Hunting Changes
  
  • The Missouri Conservation Department announced that Lewis County is in the CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) zone. That means that during the first weekend of regular hunting season, deer hunters must take their deer to a station where every deer is checked for the disease. It also means there is no restriction on hunting bucks. In past years, you couldn't shoot any mature buck with antlers containing fewer than four points on one side. They want to eliminate more animals, so the limit is off. Also, CWD counties get an extra season, again, to eliminate more deer. So, there are quite a few changes this deer hunting season.
    
  • Mary packaged and froze the TVP. A 25-pound bag of textured vegetable protein turned into 108 one-cup bags, which will last us for a couple years. One bag, plus 1.5 cups of water is equivalent to a pound of meat. We use TVP in taco bowls, chimichangas and Mexican dishes. The one-cup sandwich bags of TVP fit into four two-gallon bags in the freezer. Mary also put the 50-pound bag of oats in the freezer. After a week, it goes into four five-gallon food grade buckets, complete with Gamma seal lids. We eat oatmeal with pecans, apple slices, and blackberries for six breakfasts a week.
    
  • I removed the '84 Suburban license plates...not an easy task on that rust bucket. Actually, the front plate came off nicely with the handy ratchet wrenches that Mom gave me on my birthday. I took a cold chisel to the rusted bolts on the rear license plate.
    
  • I sprayed several Japanese beetles that were on apple trees and on the Virginia Creeper plants surrounding the house entry door. We went from cicadas to Japanese beetles eating on our fruit trees, this year.
  • A chimney swift flew by my ear, twittering away as it winged along. They are very sociable birds.
    

• Sunday, 6/30: Blackberries & Gardening
  
  • Mary picked blackberries all day. We now have four quarts of this year's blackberries in the freezer. She picked 53 ticks off her clothes. Most are seed ticks. Packing tape works wonderfully at taking them off clothing.
    
  • I mowed inside and outside of the near garden.
  • I trimmed cedar branches on the south side of the near garden. Some were starting to touch the electric fence wires. They're now about 8-10 feet back from the fence edge. I moved several wheelbarrow loads of branches down the lane and threw them into three big piles just east of the lane.
  • After pounding down earth next to near garden corner posts to solidify them, I tightened a few wires and turned on the electric fence unit. A check of the hot wires showed it was running at full strength.
    
  • We had the windows open all day, since outside temperatures were cooler. We heard crickets chirping. It sounds more like September outside, not June.
  • In the evening, I made a chart of my blood glucose numbers from 1-1-24 to now, so I can hand it over to my doctor on a visit scheduled for tomorrow.
    

June 17-23, 2024

Weather | 6/17, p. cloudy, 75°, 91° | 6/18, sunny, 70°, 89° | 6/19, sunny, 73°, 89° | 6/20, sunny, 66°, 91° | 6/21, sunny, 68°, 91° | 6/22, sunny to thunderstorm, 73°, 92° | 6/23, 0.42" rain overnight, sunny, 68°, 89° |

• Monday, 6/17: Watering Trees & Starting Cherry Wine
  
  • A strong south wind and high heat is drying out the land and plants.
    
  • Mary spent most of the day watering fruit trees and blueberry bushes. Due to high heat, she'd haul water for a short while, then take an indoor air conditioning break. We have a lot of trees and bushes to water and they need it in this intense heat.
    
  • I made a five gallon batch of cherry wine. Thawing eight packages of cherries that collectively weighed 17.8 pounds was quick and easy in the sun on the porch. I juiced two bags of mandarin oranges to put 32 ounces of juice into the brew bucket. I used two nylon mesh bags to hold the cherries. Zest from two navel oranges also went into the bags, along with the mandarin and orange pulp. The following were added to the bucket: 3.5 gallons of water, 7 pounds of sugar, a cup of strong tea brewed with two Red Rose tea bags, and 1 gram of Kmeta. The specific gravity was 1.074 and the pH was 3.4, so I didn't add acid blend. I let it sit overnight in the pantry.
  • Katie called to wish me a good belated Father's Day. She was in the middle of a visit to care for a cat as part of her part-time pet care work she does through rover.com. She talked about hosting dogs for a couple days, such as a pair of doodles and a cane corso. It sounds interesting. In her main job, she's working on a school build for Kaktovik, which is on the north shore of Barter Island on the Beaufort Sea and near the Alaska/Yukon border. The Kaktovik school burned down in 2020. Katie said the new-to-her Mazda is a nice vehicle. She got it on a regular maintenance schedule and foresees a few mechanic fixes once she builds back her savings that were drained for purchasing this rig. Nice summer weather, with temperatures into the 70s, is rolling through Anchorage.
    

• Tuesday, 6/18: Cherry Wine Batch 2
  
  • It's still hot, but not quite as bad by a couple degrees from prior hot days. We have a strong south wind blowing day and night.
  • I made a second five-gallon batch of cherry wine. The ingredients were almost identical as the first batch made yesterday, except today I used nine packages of cherries with an accumulative weight of 18.28 pounds. The specific gravity was 1.075 and the pH was 3.2.
  • In the morning, I added 3.75 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to cherry wine Batch 1, then worked up a Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast starter. Prior to pitching the yeast late at night, the specific gravity read 1.070. I added a half pound of sugar for a grand total of 7.5 pounds of sugar, which raised the specific gravity to 1.077. I also added 3 grams of diammonium phosphate (DAP) to the brew bucket. DAP is the main ingredient of yeast nutrient and I was told that several winebrewers prefer it, because less is needed to boost yeast production. Immediately upon pitching the yeast, a flowery aroma wafted from the brew bucket in the pantry.
  • The chicks have been with us for a week and they've grown a bunch in just seven days (see photos, below).
    
  • I watched Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, where the Edmonton Oilers won, 5-3. The Florida Panthers lead the series three games to two, but the Oilers won the past two games. Game 6 is Friday in Edmonton.

Chicks pictured from one week ago.

A chick as of today with wing feathers appearing.

• Wednesday, 6/19: A Blackberry Check
  
  • Mary walked around our property to check on blackberries. She says there are lots of green berries, a few ripe ones, and a bunch of red berries. There are fewer plants this year, probably due to dry conditions.
    
  • She startled up a young buck deer on Bramble Hill. Mary thinks it was resting in one of the old hog buildings. Its antlers were about eight inches tall.
  • Mary spotted a very large leaf of a plant in the southeast corner of Bass Pond. She identified it as lotus. We don't know if it's Asian or American lotus. Unfortunately, lotus is invasive and can take over an entire pond. We'll probably have to beat it back if the muskrats don't beat us to it. She adds that there are lots of bass in the pond.
    
  • I worked on cherry wine (see photo, below). Batch 1 is fizzing with yeast activity. I squeezed the mesh bag and stirred it twice, today. The morning specific gravity reading was 1.070 and the nighttime reading was 1.063. Batch 2 received strong tea and 3.75 teaspoons of pectic enzyme in the morning. I worked up a starter of Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast for Batch 2. I added three grams of DAP prior to pitching the yeast. The specific gravity was 1.072, so I didn't add any sugar, then dumped in the yeast.
    
  • I chainsawed multiflora rose vines that covered the electric fencer power unit and a massive mulberry bush that grew to completely shade the south windows of the sunroom. Behind the mulberry were several poke berry weeds that extended above the roof eve. They're all down, now, putting better sunlight into the sunroom. I cut up mulberry branches to make stakes for fencing in the far garden.
    
  • There are dead branch tips on the ground, everywhere, which is the result of cicada damage. They lay eggs in these branches, causing them to die back and fall to the ground. Our small cherry trees were hit hard by cicadas.

  

  10 gallons of cherry wine...Batch 2 (left) & Batch 1 (right).

• Thursday, 6/20: Picking First Blackberries
  • When Mary opened the gate into the chicken yard this morning, she saw a juvenile prairie king snake, about 15" long, attempting to capture two mice. The snake was coiled around one mouse. The second mouse was caught by the end of its tail and was dragging the snake wrapped around the first mouse in an attempt to escape. Once it wedged the heavy weight behind a weed, the second mouse broke free. Mary scooped the snake wrapped around the first mouse into a shovel and moved it to outside the chicken fence, so our feathered dinosaur chickens wouldn't eat it. After attending to chickens, she noticed it was eating the mouse. Later, the snake was gone.
    
  • Mary also noticed baby wood frogs hanging out in the bedding plants that she placed on the north side of the house, where it was damp and shady. They're tiny at about a half inch long.
    
  • We picked a handful of ripe blackberries. During a quick check upon returning home, we found we picked up more ticks (about 45) than berries.
  • Winemaking took up part of my day. A morning specific gravity check returned a 1.047 reading for Batch 1 and 1.068 amount for Batch 2. A nighttime check registered 1.029 for Batch 1 and 1.057 for Batch 2. Additional liquid from cherries melting away due to yeast activity is pushing the mesh bags into the flour sack towel covering the brew bucket of Batch 2, putting a red/pink stain on the cloth. I'll be racking wine tomorrow morning.
    

• Friday, 6/21: Racking Cherry Wine Batch 1
  
  • When walking the dogs this morning, a squirrel jumped on the south side of our house. We went down the lane with the puppies. Returning home, there was the squirrel, again, so I reached up with a shovel. It leaped over my head, ran up the power pole in our yard, and sassed at us.
  • I racked about 5.33 gallons of cherry wine, batch 1, for the first time (see photo, below). The specific gravity was at 1.012. The pH was 3.0. Since cherry wine has a history of foaming, I filled a five-gallon carboy and two 1-gallon jugs to where they start to curve in, leaving lots of head room for foam.  Once that was done, I cleaned the largest brew bucket, ran sanitizer through it, and moved batch 2 into this larger container. This allowed more room for increasing juice that floats fruit in mesh bags upward and was touching the towel covering the smaller brew bucket and getting it wet. I washed the flour sack towel in OxiClean and hung it on the line outside. After drying in the hot sun, the red stain was gone in a pure white towel. The early specific gravity reading on batch 2 was 1.039. Before bed, it was 1.022.
    
  • Mary dusted books in the north bedroom and pulled several to donate.
    
  • Plato's right rear leg buckled under him as I let him inside after an outside whittle. We moved his blanket from upstairs to the kitchen floor in the sunroom doorway. Then, he was off the concrete, laying on softer material, and he didn't have to go upstairs. Mary gave him one aspirin, based on his body weight. He seemed a little better by the nighttime walk.
    
  • I watched the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers, 5-1, and force a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals, which will be in Florida on Monday. Bill and I texted each other throughout the game. While Oiler's Defenseman Mattias Ekholm (see photo, below), who is Swedish, was interviewed at the end of the second period, Bill made me laugh with this comment: "Mattias Ekholm's ancestors raided English fishing villages, I mean look at him."

Cherry wine, batch 1, after its first racking.

Mattias Ekholm plays defense for the Oilers.

• Saturday, 6/22: Racking Cherry Wine Batch 2
  • Mary picked a handful of blackberries. She found a number of new blackberry patches across the north field, all with green berries. She picked in the morning, when it was not so hot.
    
  • Mary spooked up four deer in various places throughout our property while picking berries. One, a buck, and the only one she clearly saw, was bedded down near a tree in the west field.
    
  • Right after breakfast, I racked cherry wine batch 2 for the first time. The specific gravity was 1.011 and the pH was 3.0. The temperature of both batches prior to racking was 80°. Ten gallons of wine is now racked and settling down in the pantry (see photo, below).
    
  • Mary saw a crow attacked by one small bird as it flew over our place, The little bird would hit the crow on the back, making the crow drop a bit in the sky.
  • We enjoyed our first bottle of 2023 perry, or pear cider. It's a very light wine with a low alcohol level (5.63%), perfect for a summer drink. It tastes good with a tangy cinnamon flavor and a hint of pear.
    
  • On our last dog walk, a big, bright moon was shining on southeastern horizon with lightning flashing across the sky from the west.
    
  • We received an intense downpour from a thunderstorm right before midnight.
  • Plato is getting a lot better. Some good sleep and a little pain relief seems to improve his leg.

  

  10 gallons of cherry wine settling down in the pantry.

• Sunday, 6/23: Fresh Bread, Fixed Pickup Fan, & New Outdoor Electric Cover
  
  • It's Karen's 66th birthday. I left my sister a couple messages.
  • The junk dealer who picked up a bunch of mowers, the Buick, and the Ford Jubilee tractor, texted me that he will pick up the '84 GMC Suburban from us next weekend.
    
  • Mary baked four loaves of bread.
    
  • I looked up prices on an air conditioner/heater blower fan for the pickup. Prices ranged from $30 to $122 at RockAuto to $216 at AutoZone. Then I learned that the blower motor resistor usually is replaced at the same time as the fan, which is another $40-$50. I went out to check which resistor I have and discovered a plastic tang to bend slightly which allows the fan motor to come out with ease. In the squirrel cage fan mechanism was a pecan shell and a desiccated bird's skull. I removed these items, cleaned dust out of the place the fan fits into, and reinstalled the fan. On a test of the fan with the ignition on, it sounded much better. Online research tells me that the cab's air intake is under the plastic shroud beneath the windshield and the window wipers. At a later date, I'll remove wipers, that shroud, and vacuum any debris out of this air intake. It's a famous place for mice to leave stuff.
    
  • Mary hauled away mulberry branches and rose bushes that I cut down and left on the lawn while uncovering the electric fencer unit and the sunroom's south windows.
    
  • I installed a waterproof outdoor electrical receptacle cover where we plug in the electric fencer. I also replaced the outlet. Breakers aren't marked in the main breaker box, so I plugged a trouble light into the outside plug in and turned breakers off and on until I found the right one. I also discovered that breaker not only involves the outside electric plug in, but also the one in the living room that an air conditioner is plugged into and the one in the upstairs north bedroom that another air conditioner is plugged into. The electric circuits in this house are a nightmare. I applied silicone caulking around the edges of the waterproof cover.
    
  • All 10 gallons of cherry wine is turning dark red as particulates settle out. The airlocks stopped burping. It's time to rack the good liquid off the fines.
    
  • We watched the 2017 film, Darkest Hour.

June 10-16, 2024

Weather | 6/10, sunny, 53°, 75° | 6/11, sunny, 52°, 85° | 6/12, sunny, 63°, 88° | 6/13, sunny to thunderstorms, 0.15" rain, 68°, 92° | 6/14, sunny, 65°, 88° | 6/15, p. cloudy, 59°, 88° | 6/16, p. cloudy, 71°, 91° |

• Monday, 6/10: Chicks Sent Today
  
  • Cackle Hatchery emailed us that our order of chicks was in the mail this morning, with an expected arrival in the Ewing Post Office of Wednesday morning.
    
  • Mary mowed around the compost bins and in the south end of the far garden. She collected grass clippings and mulched rows in that same garden.
  • I hung the heat lamp in the chick side of the coop and put chick feeders inside. I used the Stihl trimmer and the loppers to cut a path through mother wart and rag weed plants to the outside west end of the coop. Using three old license plates and screws, I covered holes developing in that wall. I filled small cracks with pieces of hemp twine. This will get us by until after we butcher chickens. After that point, I need to replace the wood covering that west wall of the coop. It's OSB installed in 2010 and painted once. Fourteen years in the outdoors is way beyond the lifespan of that type of wood. When I checked from the inside while putting the chickens to bed for the night, I noticed I have one more crack to fill.
  • Vines are slowly enveloping our house (see photos, below). Virginia creeper vines are inching into view of our second-story bedroom window and hops vines are also marching up the wall. I guess we're growing sun protection for our house. It's turning into a "green" home.
    
  • I watched Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, where the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-1...boo!, hiss!!! My son might be happy. In the past, he's mentioned he likes several players on the Panthers' team.

A Virginia creeper vine appears in upper left corner of
our upstairs bedroom window.

Hops vines (left) & Virginia creeper (right).

• Tuesday, 6/11: A Wienie Roast With Apple Cider
  
  • I mowed inside and around the near garden, putting mulch on rows in that garden. All we do this spring is mow gardens, instead of growing things in them. There have just been too many projects, like getting junk mowers, tractors, and cars, out of here, to get to gardening.
    
  • Mary mowed the west yard, finishing off mulching the near garden rows and adding to far garden rows.
    
  • I used the small chainsaw, cut more stakes off the downed Kieffer pear branch, and staked down more sections between rebar posts on the chicken wire fence in the near garden. I finished the south and east sides and started down the north side.
  • We paid attention to postal service tracking of our chicks through the day. Yesterday, they made it to Kansas City. By tonight, they were en route to St. Louis. From there, they'll head north to us.
    
  • I built an outside fire and we enjoyed turkey hotdogs that we recently bought at Aldi. They're a lot cheaper than pork or beef hotdogs and they taste good. After eating them, we enjoyed a bottle of 2023 apple cider on ice. It tasted delicious and is a great, refreshing summer drink, especially served cold. We saw lots of dragonflies, one bat, and then a multitude of lightning bugs as darkness fell. Tree frogs and crickets grow louder as stars started appearing. We also heard, robins, a wood thrush, a summer tanager, and a barred owl. I spotted bright yellow eyes reflecting off my hat light as I took buckets of water out to douse the fire. By the speed in which that critter took off, I'm assuming it was a raccoon.
    

• Wednesday, 6/12: Chicks Arrive
  
  • We received a call just after 7 a.m. from the Ewing Post Office that our chicks arrived, so after walking puppies, I drove to Ewing to pick them up and take them home. We got three extra, or a total of 28, and they're all quite healthy (see videos, below). We detect four varieties. They mugged the water fount immediately, then slowly started eating. By midday, the chicks were running all over their side of the coop, investigating everything. Outside temperatures were close to 90°, enabling us to turn off the heat lamp and open three windows.
  • Higher temperatures meant we weren't thrilled with going outside and baking in the sun, so we stayed inside, today.
  • More and more, we're seeing dead cicadas in the grass. We're also noticing cicada twig damage on most all deciduous trees.
  • We saw an indigo bunting for the first time this season. In the evening, we watched a great blue heron fly north with the south wind at its tail. It was really zipping along, quickly.

Lively chicks pecking on the coop floor.

Chicks bellying up to the bar for a drink.

• Thursday, 6/13: Hot With Storms
  
  • Today was a hot and muggy day, with temperatures into the 90s, so when we went outside, we were out for a short stints and back inside, quickly. I ended up opening all windows wide open in the coop for the chicks. It's their temperature (see photos, below).
    
  • Bill's gift of arm protectors that you wear to keep thorns from nailing your forearms while picking berries arrived via UPS, today, and Mary tested them out. They work nicely.
    
  • Mary picked more black raspberries. She finished filling a fifth quart in the freezer and started a new bag.
  • I cut 16 pear branch stakes and pounded a few in the ground on the chicken wire fence in the near garden.
    
  • At 4:30 p.m., a darkening west sky pushed us into attacking evening chores. Mary got the mail and heard thunder on the way back home from the mailbox. At 5:30, thunderstorms hit. There was continuous thunder and lightening for 2.5 hours, while the storms went through. Trees and power poles were down throughout the county with damage all around us, but we witnessed only a little downpour of rain. Reports of golfball, ping-pong sized, and 2.5-inch hail came from as close as a mile away from us. Mary looked online and 840 Lewis County Rural Electric Co-op customers were without power. Again, we maintained power throughout the storms. It's amazing how our geography diverts storms around us.
  • Mary took photos (see below) of spectacular mammatus clouds above us after the thunderstorms went through. A setting sun gave them a red glow for an amazing appearance.
    
  • I watched the last two periods of game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Florida won 4-3. It's the third loss in a row for Edmonton. The only team to win after being down 3-0 was the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942, who lost the first three games, then won four, straight, over the Detroit Red Wings. Can the Oilers repeat that feat?

Chicks enjoying the sunlight's heat.

A little fuzzy chick.

Mammatus clouds viewed above our porch.

More mammatus clouds after today's thunderstorms.

• Friday, 6/14: Another Day, More Garden Stakes
  
  • On a trip to the chicken coop to check on chicks (see videos, below), Mary and I watched a rose-breasted grosbeak gobbling down mulberries in the mulberry bush in the west yard.
    
  • I cut more pear stakes and pounded them into the ground along the chicken wire fence in the near garden. It's almost done.
  • There is a lot of twig damage from cidadas all over our property. They love maple trees and any smaller tree. I'm glad they only appear every 13 or 17 years.
  • My extra fly tying tools came in the mail from J. Stockard. They look like good fly tying equipment. Now, I just need to dive in and enjoy.
    
  • We watched the 2005 movie, Goodnight, and Good Luck, about Edward R. Morrow. It's a good one.

Sleepy chick after getting a full belly of food & water.

Run, chickie, run!!!

• Saturday, 6/15: Near Garden Almost Ready
  
  • We have the heat of July in June. Ugh!
  • Almost daily, a deer runs away from behind the machine shed. It was there, again, this morning.
    
  • I finished pounding stakes along the chicken wire fence in the near garden. This time I cut down persimmon saplings that were leaning over so we had to duck while walking on the trail to the far garden. I cut the saplings into stakes.
    
  • After finishing with stakes, I weedwhacked under the electric fence wires of the near garden. Several mole or vole diggings along the soil under the bottom wire that dried in the sun made for intense dust stirred up by the string trimmer. Often, I had to stop the Stihl trimmer in order to see my work. This garden is almost ready. I just need to power up the electric fence.
    
  • Mary picked more raspberries, filling six quarts in the freezer. They are turning bad within an hour, due to the increased daily heat. So, picking raspberries is over.
    
  • Mary mowed between the sheds and mulched more of the far garden.
  • Several common milkweed blossoms in the east yard are full of pollinators (see photos, below).
  • I watched Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, where Edmonton won, 8-1. They just need to win three more straight games to defeat the Florida Panthers.

A hummingbird clearwing moth on common milkweed.

A great spangled fritillary butterfly on a milkweed blossom.

• Sunday, 6/16: Heat!
  • It's hot outside, so we stayed inside today. Thank goodness for air conditioning. The heat lamp for the chicks stays off with daytime temperatures into the 90s. We're only turning it on as the sun sets. Planting seeds in the garden is also delayed. We'll probably need to water trees, soon. Strong south winds are drying them out.
    
  • Bill called and we talked with him. He's counting down to when his job ends on June 28th. Temperatures in St. Louis are expected to be in the high 90s the upcoming week. He's visiting us July 3-7.
    
  • Katie asked to call right when we were heading to bed. Maybe we'll talk in the future.
  • I checked on bulk prices for TVP and old fashioned rolled oats.
  • I'm reading the book, Wolf, The Lives of Jack London, by James L. Haley. It's fascinating. He was very driven throughout his short life.
    

June 3-9, 2024

Weather | 6/3, sunny, 65°, 84° | 6/4, cloudy, 65°, 83° | 6/5, 0.43" rain overnight, sunny, 60°, 79° | 6/6, sunny, 60°, 80° | 6/7, sunny, 54°, 86° | 6/8, 0.12" rain overnight, cloudy, 65°, 83° | 6/9, p. cloudy 57°, 83° |

• Monday, 6/3: Out Goes the Junk
  
  • I moved all nine of the junk mowers and tillers to one location on the east side of the machine shed (see photos, below). The junk dealer showed up just after 10 a.m. with a young son in a pickup pulling a dual-axle trailer. He and his 19-year old son partner in fixing old equipment. He's strong. After putting a strap around the front of the lawn tractor, he hoisted it up on the trailer, then lifted the back end into place. He and I lifted the Gravely onboard, which was a strain, at least for me. I asked if he took vehicles and tractors. He indicated an interest. After he left, he asked for photos of the '84 Suburban and said he's interested in buying that and the Jubilee Ford tractor. Mary says lets get rid of the Buick, so I asked if he wanted it, too, and he said yes. We agreed on a price of $350 for all three items. We could get a little more at a junkyard, but there's a huge advantage with him hauling it all away with his trailer. We're on a mission of getting rid of old junk! I now have to empty stuff out of the Suburban and the Buick, that we've been using as storage locations.
    
  • Mary and I mowed our quarter-mile lane. She said that with both of us mowing, it took a third of the time it usually takes for her to mow it, alone.
    
  • I picked a few more cherries and ate them for an evening dessert. I'm only picking cherries from the middle of the tree. Those at the top are turning dark, or beyond ripe. Birds can have them.

A lineup of junk mower and tillers.

Uncle Herman's lawn tractor.

• Tuesday, 6/4: Mowing, Raspberries & Garden Stakes
  
  • I mowed in and around the near garden, putting grass clippings on the south row. We're almost finished mulching that row.
  • Mary finished mowing the north yard. It's full of little poison ivy plants and small ragweed, so we don't keep clippings from that lawn.
  • Mary picked several more black raspberries. She has two full quarts in the freezer and started a new quart.
  • The pickup heater/air conditioning fan was real loud the last time we drove the vehicle. I attempted to fix it. On this model, the fan motor is under the dash on the passenger side. There are no bolts. It just clicks into place. Trying to turn it out was impossible and I didn't want to break it while getting the motor out. I must have jiggled something out of the way of the squirrel cage fan, because when I turned on the air system, the noise was gone.
    
  • I used the small chainsaw to cut stakes for between posts holding up the chicken wire in the near garden. I'm cutting them off a Kieffer pear branch that fell this spring. Pear wood is probably the toughest of all the wood growing on our property. I pounded 19 stakes in the ground, making it more than halfway down the south side of that fencing.
    
  • A couple barred owls were loud in the west woods as we walked the dogs at night. Prior to going out, we heard a squalling raccoon close to the house in the west yard.
    

• Wednesday, 6/5: Ants in the Mailbox
  
  • Rain fell overnight, after we went to bed. Mary couldn't fall asleep right away and heard the front come through with a strong wind blast.
  • This morning, we saw big raccoon tracks in the trail to the woodshed, just past our porch. It looked like tracks from a big bore raccoon.
    
  • I noticed about 100-200 small ants inside our mailbox, yesterday. Mary took a brush along when we delivered bills to the mailbox and brushed out the ants. Along the way, we heard a couple Bob White quail calling and saw several fly away.
  • I gave Mary a haircut. She feels human, again.
    
  • I weighed all 39 bags of 2024 cherries in the freezer to determine how much cherry wine I can make. I picked 61 pounds, 3.8 ounces of cherries (Bill helped pick several of them). That weight is without pits. I figure I can make two 5-gallon batches of cherry wine and we'll have several bags left for baking purposes.
    
  • Mary figured out a shopping list. She also baked a cherry crisp from last year's cherries. We have four quarts left from last year.
    
  • I balanced the checkbook while Mary picked more black raspberries. She got another big batch. She says some raspberry patches are expanding. Mary also said a growing number of cherry pits in a big semi-circle is near the Keiffer pear tree.
    
  • I picked more cherries to eat as a supper dessert. Those near the top of the tree, or on outer branches, are turning black and too ripe for eating. Most of the cherries in the center, away from intense sunlight, are still good. They sure taste great.
  • After walking the dogs on their last walk around 10 p.m., Mary and I walked into the north yard and gazed at blinking lightning bugs. Numbers are increasing and they put on a nice show as they fly through branches high in the trees. It's like Christmas out there.
    

• Thursday, 6/6: Shopping
  
  • We shopped in Quincy. On the way there, about two miles away from our house on State Highway J in a dip in the road, we saw a doe deer and her newborn fawn (see photo, below). They were right in the middle of the highway, so I stopped and put on the four-way flashers. Eventually, and with coaxing from Mama Deer, they departed west into the woods. Just after that, a goonball driving a motorcycle zoomed through driving very fast.
  • I found five pairs of pants at the Salvation Army that fit me better. I've gone from a 36" to 34" waist, so I'm tossing old pants in favor of better fitting ones. Besides picking up food, we got chick feed and other items to set up for baby chicks that arrive next week.
  • I received a message from the junk dealer asking if he can drop by Sunday to pick up the Jubilee tractor and the 2000 Buick Park Avenue. I agreed. He wants to drive the Buick and asked if it can make it. I think it can, but warned him about its issues. I started it to make sure it runs, and it started right up.
    
  • We watched the 2022 movie, The Lost City, that we picked up today, starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe. It's really funny. We liked it.

  

  A tiny fawn behind Mom on Highway J.

• Friday, 6/7: Four Quarts of Raspberries
  • When Mary opened the chicken coop this morning, she saw the flash of a deer as it ran off from behind the machine shed. It was laying down prior to running off.
    
  • The horde of cicadas is noticeably less. They still are loud during the heat of the afternoon sun. We're starting to see their damage on trees and bushes. They lay eggs toward the tips of branches and areas beyond this egg-laying site die.
    
  • I inflated both front tires and the left rear tire of the '53 Jubilee tractor. The right rear wouldn't inflate, probably because it's too far gone with severe cracks. I didn't want to put undo wear on the small air inflation machine, so I ran it for just a minute at a time, then gave it a break. It took a long time to get the big rear tractor tire inflated. 
  • During the in-between times of tire inflating, I sharpened the blade on Mary's mower, and changed the tire on our oldest large wheelbarrow to a solid rubber one that will never go flat. The axle is long on this wheelbarrow, requiring spacers to keep the tire centered. I tried to make spacers out of a piece of PVC water pipe. That didn't work, since the pipe wasn't thick enough, so I used washers, instead.
    
  • Mary picked another big batch of black raspberries, which was enough to fill a quart freezer bag. She has four quarts in the freezer of this year's raspberries. She says they emit a wonderful aroma as she picked them.
    
  • With the $35 I had leftover from Christmas/birthday money, I ordered more fly tying tools from J. Stockard. They held a one-day anniversary sale, today, where their own name brand tools were 50 percent off, so I got a bunch of them.
    

• Saturday, 6/8: Cleaning Coop, Buick & Tractor
  • Mary cleaned the chicken coop. It was really dirty. She moved seven wheelbarrow loads and filled the compost bin to capacity with chicken pooh, old hay, and dried mud. After she finished, Mary and I put up the wall that divides the chicks from the hens inside the coop. Mary added hay to the floors of both sides of the coop. Mary said a Rhode Island Red hen was burrowing under the hay as she put it down, she liked to so much. Other than fixing a small hole in the west outside wall and hanging a heat lamp, we're ready for the arrival of chicks. They should be in Wednesday's mail. Mary was very tired after finishing that chore.
    
  • I cleared stuff off the '53 Ford Jubilee tractor, then sorted through several bags of sheets and blankets that we had in large garbage bags stored on the tractor. I threw away two-thirds of them, due to mouse infestation. Amongst the bags were more lace curtains, which we use at times to protect young plants from seed-eating birds and harsh sunlight.
    
  • I cleaned out the 2000 Buick Park Avenue. What a mess!!! I swept up a lot of mouse poop.
    
  • I wrote up bills of sale for the car and the tractor for us and the junk dealer to sign, tomorrow.
    
  • I watched Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The team I'm rooting for, the Edmonton Oilers, lost 3-0 to the Florida Panthers. Panthers Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, was out of this world on the 32 saves he made through the game.
    

• Sunday, 6/9: Jubilee Tractor & Buick Park Avenue Are Gone
  
  • I looked online about where to find the serial number on a Ford Jubilee tractor and found the number. I couldn't quite read it, so I got Mary's help. She dug out a magnifying glass and I wrote it down on the bill of sale. I also put the Buick's mileage on the other bill of sale, after connecting the battery. I used one of the wrenches Mom gave me for my birthday, which worked real nicely at tightening the battery cable nut.
    
  • The junk dealer arrived at 10:15 a.m. with his eldest son. I pulled the Jubilee tractor with the 8N Ford tractor while his son steered the Jubilee. The 8N easily pulled the Jubilee up a couple wimpy aluminum ramps that bent into curves as I slowly eased the 8N forward and pulled the Jubilee into the trailer. Using my small air pump, we aired up the driver's front tire on the Buick and removed the blocks. They put fluid in the brake master cylinder. Brakes were spongy, but they thought they could drive it to their place, which is 45 miles west of us. The junk dealer told us he will be back to get the Suburban toward the end of the month, after his kids get done with 4-H projects in county fairs. With his son driving the Buick, they left around 11:30. I texted later and they made it to their home without any mishap.
  • Mary and I wandered through the machine shed. We're starting to see more and more empty space in there.
    
  • Mary and I were both tired, so we spent a rather lazy day inside. Mary decided to quit cross stitching after falling asleep a couple times...not ideal with a needle in your hand. I was also falling asleep, so I went outside and put stuff away left out after this morning's junk dealings.
    
  • Mary watched a catbird enter the forsythia bush with a feather in its mouth that covering the bird's head so it had to dodge from side to side to see. It was probably a chicken feather.
  • The first purple coneflowers are blooming out the west living room window.
  • Mary picked almost a quart of black raspberries.
    
  • I noticed that most all of the over ripe cherries are gone. Then, I saw the results of an overzealous opossum (see photo, below). It ate too many cherries and upchucked them, their pits, and a couple mulberries onto the grass mulch under the Liberty apple tree.

  

  Yup, you're looking at 'possum puke, after it ate over ripe cherries.